Accor plans more hotels in RI

JAKARTA (JP): Accor Asia Pacific Corporation, one of the world's leading hotel management firms, plans to expand its Indonesian network to 25 star-rated hotels with some 6,000 rooms by the end of this year.

Company president in Indonesia, Marc A. Steinmeyer, said Saturday that Accor would open later this year five hotels under the Novotel brand.

Accor, partly owned by Paris-based hotel management giant Accor SA, operates hotels under several brand names, including Sofitel, Novotel, Mercure and Ibis.

Steinmeyer said the five new Novotel hotels would be located in Surakarta in Central Java, Yogyakarta, Bogor in West Java, Batam in Riau, and Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara.

"The new Novotels, except Novotel Yogyakarta which will open late this year, are scheduled to open by June 1997," he said.

He said the hotel in Lombok was owned by PT Lombok Tourism Development Corporation and the Rajawali Group; Novotel Solo in Surakarta by PT Sunmotor; Novotel Bogor by the Aspac Group; and Novotel Yogyakarta by the PSP Group which also owns the Ibis Slipi.

Like the Novotel Benoa in Bali, the hotels in Bogor and Lombok would be classified as resort hotels, he added.

Accor currently runs seven Novotels in Indonesia located in Surabaya in East Java; Bukittinggi in West Sumatra; Bali; Medan in North Sumatra; Jambi in Jambi; Toraja in South Sulawesi and Manado in North Sulawesi. Currently, the company also runs seven properties under the Ibis name and four others under Mercure.

"We also intend to run a five-star Sofitel in Jakarta within the next few years," Steinmeyer said.

Accor has become one of the largest hotel chains in the Asia- Pacific region, with the biggest growth record in Indonesia in addition to China and India. The company's first hotel in Indonesia was the Ibis Kemayoran opened in 1994.

A number of international hotel management firms have entered Indonesia, operating medium scale and luxury hotels to provide more accommodation alternatives.

In addition to Accor, leading overseas hotel management chains in Indonesia include Sheraton with a total of some 3,500 rooms, Hyatt and Shangri-la with some 2,500 rooms each. (icn)